Seeking back to my roots? Or is it all in the head?

Talk to your muscles and they might respond.

Healing from an injury turns out to be a tedious and fascinating process. Even long after the injury is physically healed, you might feel actual pain in the problem area. In the end pain is simply some signals that your brains sends, and the brain turns out to work in mysterious ways.

During my therapy to heal from my upper hamstrings tendinopathy, at some point my physiotherapist Ane started to push me to start running again although I still had pain. She told me that the brain works to protect the injured area by sending out pain signals, even when the injury is largely gone. The brain seems to think “Best to be on the safe side, let’s give her some pain so she lets that area in peace”. In fact, this is exactly the reason a good physiotherapist will never order you to simply rest. With exercises like the HSR training that worked so well for me, you are convincing your brain to work to heal the area, insisting on using those muscles so that they are not just left on their own. As prescribed, my injury got better and better, albeit very slowly, and then something very unexpected happened as soon as I moved to Istanbul two months ago. The pain immediately and suddenly disappeared!

Already the morning after I arrived in Istanbul I started running with Team Instrunbul. And to my big surprise I felt no pain. It was the first time I ran completely pain-free in two years! Since then, running with them four times a week, I got faster and faster, still no sign of the pain in my butt. Other small pains came and went, something I consider normal for all runners, I had to be cautious from time to time, but no pain in the butt. I think this again shows that pain is something very strange. As I arrived in Istanbul, everything was in a new setting, there were so many new things to think about, and being excited and anxious about all these things, my brain forgot about the pain. At least that’s how I interpret the sudden disappearing of the pain.

Now, as soon as I am back in Scandinavia for a short time, the pain in my butt is back! What to make out of it??? I was running in Stockholm on Friday. The weather was dry but really cold and windy, and my butt twas hurting all the time. In fact it started giving me some signals already the day before, as I was on my way to Stockholm. Did I really do something to make the injury worse, or is it simply my brain that recalls how everything was last winter when it was at its worse and most painful? Perhaps my body, after all, functions better in its birth place than in the place where it has been living for the past 30 years? In fact, searching a little bit on the subject reveals that when running in the cold, we are actually more exposed to injuries. Now I understand better what many of my experienced running friends from Bergen told me when I was leaving for Istanbul: “it will be so wonderful to run in warmer weather”. 

One of the new things I tried in Istanbul, is going for a full body massage every now and then. It is not the kind of painful deep tissue massage I tried in Norway before. It is mostly pleasant, although some hard pressure is applied to problem areas. One thing that my massage therapist makes a point of, exactly in line with what Ane was telling me, is activating the brain to heal a problem area. He says that the aim of the massage is not to make muscles feel good, but rather find the problem points and push them so that the brain realizes that something has to be done there. He also tells me to talk to my muscles. Massage the hurting muscle lightly, and speak to it, like “Don’t worry, you will be fine, the pain will be gone very soon”. If you think this is too much Hocus Pocus, think again. It is simply making your brain aware of that particular area, and putting the brain and the muscle in connection. The brain has so many things to take care of, and it chooses the easiest way to deal with things. If you function well enough with some pain, it says “Well, that’s going fine, no need for me to put any effort to heal that” or “Let the pain stay there so that she will not push it too hard”.

When I say that pain is simply signals, don’t take me wrong. The pain is real. It is really there. But it does not always mean that something is physically wrong. Especially if it concerns an old injury, it might sometimes be that your brain just sends you these signals out of habit or because it is reminded of something. If you have a long lasting pain which nobody can figure out what to do about, you might want to ask your physiotherapist about HSR (heavy slow resistance) training. It really works wonders. When it comes to new pain though, which was not there before, be much more careful! Backing off a little bit on running as soon as you feel the pain, and taking it easy for a few days, might make it disappear again. After all, being cautious and not running a couple of weeks is infinitely better than not being able to run for many months, like I had to learn the hard way.

Listen to your body, and make your brain listen to you.